Archive for the ‘Securirty’ Category:

Mobile and Remote Employees can put business data at risk.

Most businesses have employees that often work away from the office desk. Employees work from home, on the road or even roam the office/retail floor with mobile devices. Businesses also implement BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) to give employees flexibility to work from anywhere. Unfortunately most businesses do not have a security strategy for their business mobility.

Without a secure business mobility strategy, business data and devices are at risk of theft. Businesses also need to provide a consistent work experience for employees in and out of the office. Employee productivity can be impacted when employees have to work with different applications outside the office.

Securely Enable Business Mobility with Office 365

Office 365 provides employees maximum flexibility to work anywhere, while business can maintain control of business activities. It also helps businesses manage and protect company’s devices, data and budget while simultaneously giving companies a competitive advantage.

Employees can use a mix of business and personal devices to access business applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook. It also provides consistent experience across Windows, iOS and Android desktops, laptops, phones and tablets

Office 365 Business Premium has built-in security features and fully installed versions of Office apps on employee’s choice of desktop, tablet, or phone. This provides improved collaboration across devices so teams in different locations can work together more efficiently. Employees can also hold “face-to-face” meetings from any location through Skype for Business, improving teamwork and boosting productivity.

Office 365 Enterprise E3 includes everything in Business Premium and advanced capabilities for data protection and compliance tools. This helps businesses maintain regulatory compliance while employees work away from the office.

The Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) can protect company assets while enabling workers to stay productive from practically anywhere. It provides capabilities for securely managing mobile devices and applications.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business securely implement business mobility.

In an effort to counter credit card fraud, US credit card companies are transitioning to credit cards with embedded chip. These chip cards are based on a global payment standard called EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa). Most foreign countries are already using these cards so we are a little late making the switch.

The difference between an EMV chip card and a magnetic strip card is the embedded chip in the EMV cards. Payment data is stored on the chip instead of the magnetic strip, this makes the payment data more secure compared to magnetic strip cards. We have all heard stories of credit card information theft at gas stations via the magnetic strip. EMV chip cards are currently secure from such. EMV chip credit cards are also globally accepted.

The major impact to small businesses is the liability shift starting on October 1st 2015. This means liability in card-present credit card fraud shifts to the least EMV-compliant party. If a magnetic-strip credit card is fraudulently swiped at a business, then the business is liable for the charges and no longer the credit card company.

Most small businesses should have received replacement EMV terminals from their credit card merchants. The new terminals look similar to the old except with an additional slot for the EMV card insertion.

There are no additional steps to install an EMV terminal compared to a traditional terminal. Moving to EMV credit card terminal protects small businesses and it’s customers from credit card fraud.